Tag: Justin Vernon

Yes, it’s here. This track is the product of a chance meeting of Justin Vernon and James Blake at SXSW in March. The collaboration from these two artists brings together the slow building, dub-influenced, layered production of Blake with the soulful, emotionally raw vocals from Vernon, resulting in a stunning composition that seems to push beyond the sonic comfort zones featured on their most recent albums. We’re hoping for some sort of release entitled “Enough Thunder” from these two sometime this October.

Megafaun’s Phil Cook recently got a taste of the limelight performing with former bandmate Justin Vernon on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. While Cook took to the piano in that performance, his virtuosity really shines when he plays the guitar or banjo. Cook’s latest collection, Hungry Mother Blues, is filled with unadorned, yet colorful, acoustic instrumentals. Highly reminiscent of guitar legend John Fahey, the set is perfect for back porch lounging on a lazy summer morning. Stream the entire album below and download the track “Ballad of a Hungry Mother” over at Cook’s bandcamp.

BONUS: Justin Vernon posted an mp3 of himself and Cook rehearsing for their Fallon performance last week on his blog. Vernon aptly titles the track, which features a medley of Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” / “Nick of Time with Donnie Hathaway’s “A Song For You,” “Bonnie Hathaway.” Enjoy.

SR was heavily seduced by the retro/smooth rock stylings of Gayngs in 2010. The supergroup’s debut album Relayted (Jagjaguwar) made our year end list and now the Midwesterners are giving their songs the remix treatment. To create the new collection of tracks, the band had seven producers follow a rigid set of rules:

To create the GAYNGS’ Regrind EP all of the stems from the bands debut album, Relayted, were arbitrarily named and compiled into a list … [A] collection of producers and musicians … were then instructed to choose only 10, without knowing what songs they came from or what instruments they contained. One could choose anything from four sax solos and six bass lines, to eight keyboards and two background vocals. The combinations that could be chosen were indefinite…the only certainty was that the parts would all be set to the tempo of 69 beats per minute.

From there, the re-grinders were free to chop, pitch-shift, and otherwise pulverize the stems into a new, cohesive song. The only rule was that they must use all 10 stems they were given, and that the tempo must remain at GAYNGS’ standard 69 bpm.

It’s an interesting concept but with somewhat mixed results in my opinion. I’m particularly enjoying the Justin Vernon vocal sample on “Sprinkle Juice” at the moment. Stream/download the entire set below (via Stereogum).

I think my love for Justin Vernon is becoming unhealthy. It seems everything he touches quickly works its way onto my Top 100 played songs in iTunes. GAYNGS’ sexy cover of Sade’s classic “By Your Side” is no exception. (Beware: Clothing tends to slip off while this jam plays).

This cover was featured in the first trailer for The Social Network (which I have become obsessed with). It’s a pretty genius take on the Radiohead original, and its inclusion in the movie preview recently scored the Scala & Kolacny Bros a recording contract with Rhino Entertainment. So all you budding musicians, simply get one of your songs attached to a big Hollywood movie and you’ll be on your way. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

Here is a great interpretation of a song I wouldn’t have imagined to be “coverable.” The original (sung by the incredible Louis Prima as King Louis) is a classic and reminds me of my childhood. I can still picture Baloo romping to this one.

A new Kanye/Justin Vernon song leaked today (via Youraudiofix.com hense the annoying musical watermark heard throughout). The song entitled “Lost In The World” samples Vernon’s autotuned masterpiece “Woods.” For you Bon Iver fans who we’re hoping for a little more of Vernon’s presence on “Monster,” this track might be more up your alley.

That being said, I can’t decide how I feel about it yet. There are parts I really love and other’s I don’t care for. I would have loved to hear more actual rapping from Kayne and less Gil Scott Heron spoken word. Either way, Kayne definitely knows how to keep things fresh.

A new track from Mr. West, that he dropped on his website this morning. This is part of the G.O.O.D. Fridays that Kanye announced on twitter earlier this week, and is apparently just the beginning of the collaborative efforts of Kanye and Bon Iver front man Justin Vernon. Check out this sweet interview from Pitchfork where Vernon discusses going to Hawaii to record with Kanye, overdubbing the shit out of his vocals, and smoking spliffs with Rick Ross. Also, Nicki Minaj’s verse is FIRE.

Collections of Colonies of Bees multi-intrumentalist Thomas Wincek brings us a track from his new band All Tiny Creatures. For the song, Wincek enlisted the ethereal vocals of Eau Claire buddy Justin Vernon. You may recall Wincek and Vernon’s collaboration on the ambient/experimental side project Volcano Choir. With its stacked melody, pulsating drums, and layered vocals, “An Iris” is fairly reminiscent of their previous work together. You can probably pick up on the similarities. “An Iris” will be featured on Harbors, due this fall via Hometapes. Thanks Stereogum for the tip.